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Opinion Contributor

The devil and Rick Santorum

In 2005, Santorum road-tested Nazi analogies on the Senate floor, when he charged that the Democrats’ outrage that Republicans wanted to change rules which the Democrats had only recently changed was “the equivalent of Adolf Hitler in 1942 saying, ‘I’m in Paris. How dare you invade me? How dare you bomb my city?’”

But Santorum doesn’t just use Nazi and Beelzebub metaphors to describe his opponents.

Speaking in 2002 of the Catholic priest pedophile scandal, Santorum said it should be “no surprise that Boston, a seat of academic, political and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the center of the storm.”

An effort by candidate John F. Kennedy to assure the country that organized Catholicism would not guide his presidency caused Santorum such revulsion, he said Sunday, that it made him want to “throw up.”

Conservatives should be particularly sensitive to a failure to appreciate honest differences of opinion. Liberals seem often to believe that conservatives are either dumb or evil — or both. With President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, many liberals seemed to think they had one of each.

It’s not too uncommon for politicians to attribute pernicious motives to their opponents. But people expect something more from the person who aspires to be the leader of us all.

The reason we rarely elect moral crusaders to be president is that their fervor can easily lapse into intolerance — and the American people recognizes this when they see it.

Santorum’s sense of his own morality seems to be so certain and unyielding that he is intolerant of dissent.

And intolerance is intolerable in a president.

Keith Koffler, who covered the White House as a reporter for CongressDaily and Roll Call, is editor of the blog White House Dossier.

Readers' Comments (54)

Perhaps if the sanctimonious Santorum encounters Barack he will spray holy water on him to see what happens or examine his scalp to see if a 666 is on there a la "The Omen."

Even though Rick is Catholic he managed to lose Catholic voters in Michigan to Mormon Mitt because of Rick's vomit comment about JFK. Santorum would be a disaster in November (not that the corporations are people guy is any great shakes either).

And also by a liar of a blog to suit his ignorance of the subject and took his talking points from bits and pieces posted by other bigots that have decided that now is the time to try to BURY Christianity.

Santorum rarely talked about his faith except that the MEDIA pressed it and ONLY reported that.

99% of the stumping was about policy, the economy, and spending.

The outgrowth of media anti-Catholicism is the last acceptable form of bigotry complicit in the persecution of religion and Mr. Kottler practices it.

Is it an odd occuance that this hit piece is posted a day after the bigot on the HuffPost promoting bigots like Doyle who despise Catholics and others who practice traditional Judeo Christian faiths.

That makes you complicit in bigotry and the HuffPost and Politico complicite also.

Doyle's piece concluded with a reference to the Kennedy assassination.

"Need I remind you that only once in our great history has a Roman Catholic been elected president, and how tragically it ended".

Yeah go back to the "Catholic" president and demean his religion Doyle....After all we do pracitice the first amendment and you and your buddy's now have web sites willing to give you a forum.

The "moral crusaders" are people like Keith Kofflerand Larry Doyle.

If Christians want to turn their heads and NOT speak OUT against them they may do so

But

It's about time people FIGHT BACK!

They can hate all they want, but they are BIGOTS plain and simple with outlets to spew their hate and bigotry.

Santorum, ABC’s “This Week”: I don’t believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute. The idea that the church can have no influence or no involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical to the objectives and vision of our country.

. . . Kennedy for the first time articulated the vision saying, no, faith is not allowed in the public square. I will keep it separate. Go on and read the speech. I will have nothing to do with faith. I won’t consult with people of faith. . . . To say that people of faith have no role in the public square? You bet that makes you throw up.

Santorum, NBC’s “Meet the Press”: That is not the founders’ vision. That’s not the America that was made the greatest country in the history of the world. The idea that people of faith should not be permitted in the public square to influence public policy is antithetical to the First Amendment, which says the free exercise of religion — James Madison called people of faith, and by the way no faith and different faith — the ability to come in the public square with diverse opinions, motivated by a variety of different ideas and passions, the perfect remedy. Why — because everybody is allowed in.

Rick seems like such a nice young man... until he opens his mouth. But remember, Ahmadinejad talks to God and God talks back and tells him what to do. Bishop Romney talks to God and God tells him what to do. Are we having a problem here? Could it be... ? Could it be another Saturday Night Live skit with the Church Lady is coming?

According to a report in the Daily Rash, after giving a speech to supporters in the parking lot of a Super Walmart in Chicago, Rick Santorum performed an exorcist on a possessed woman in the back of a van. www.thedailyrash.com/rick-santorum-performs-exorcism-in-walmart-parking-lot

And also by a liar of a blog to suit his ignorance of the subject and took his talking points from bits and pieces posted by other bigots that have decided that now is the time to try to BURY Christianity.

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Look, this whole thing about Christians being harassed and targeted is just ridiculous. Christians rule this country and have since it was founded. So the narrative of Christians somehow being attacked and their religious beliefs attacked is simply untrue.

But it's a clever trick. Rick Santorum (and this Skint person whose post I've quoted) fabricate a complete non-issue: that Christianity and religious belief are under assault, even though the VAST majority of Americans profess a Christian faith.

So you start repeating this lie over and over again. You get weak-minded people to believe this lie even though it flies in the face of all reason and facts. Since these credulous buffoons don't really care about reason and facts, they pick up the lie and tell it themselves.

Before you know we're back in imperial Rome and Christians are being thrown to lions.

The fact is that, if anything, those of us to don't fit into a Christian world-view are the ones who are marginalized, attacked, even killed. As a gay man I can assure you that Christians aren't the victims. They are often the perpetrators of violence. Of course, those folks aren't acting like Christians, but that's never bothered very man churches, who do very little to distance themselves from such violence.

So let's just be honest here and quit the martyr charade. Christians are quite safe in this country.

Tell you what, Skint. Go to about 85% of this country, kiss a man in public, then tell me who has to worry about being buried. It's not the Christians, my friend.

Santorum is Michele Bachmann in a sweater vest. A delusional conduit of immaterial voices in an unsound mind. Santorum is a religious Dominionist of the Catholic Order. And while Rick doesn't actually want to be Pope he will be glad to serve in this new world order. According to Wikipedia Dominionism is a term used to describe politically active conservative Christians that are believed to conspire and seek influence or control over secular civil government through political action, especially in the United States, with the goal of either a nation governed by Christians, or a nation governed by a conservative Christian understanding of biblical law. What does that sound like to you? It is the Cult-of-the-Day response that "If you don't believe exactly as I do about religion, I hope you don't get constitutional protections, and I explicitly hope you suffer for your decision to be different than me!" It is hatred. It is ignorance disguised as piety, and intellectual dullness masquerading as religious fervor.

Freedom is the exact distance between church and state. Well put. And part of why we cannot buy friends in the Muslim world... or achieve peace through democracy in theocratic realms from Libya to Iran. It is a hard lesson to turn around and look at how readily rhetoric turns into propaganda and suppression... If you have seen the angry face of Mitt Romney it is nearly as frightening as the casual demogoguery of Santorassi. Unless we understand who Mitt Romney is as a Bishop in the LDS church we have no way of knowing what it will mean to elect a religious leader from a religion that guards its privacy. Gamble with democracy?

Santorum’s idea to “revive’ housing by getting rid of Freddie and Fannie is cockeyed:

When people can borrow more mortgage money more cheaply than they otherwise could, thanks to Fan and Fred’s government backing, that money pushes up housing prices. It has nowhere else to go.

Conversely, getting rid of Fannie and Freddie would push down housing prices, as houses would lose a big part of their government subsidy.

...

This isn’t the only indication that Santorum is confused about economics. His support for a zero tax-rate for manufacturing has been panned by everyone from former Obama official Christine Romer to legions of free market economists.

In history cultures demonized people they did not understand or did not like. The Senator has always believed this and now has a platform to spread this rhetoric like manure disguised as his own personal and moral religiously held belief. The problem for conservatives is the world is not so black and white, good or bad. He could have won Michigan but the real Santorum, buoyed by his zealot crusader type followers scared more moderate voters from voting for him. He is doing President Obama a great favor by highlighting how religiously unfit evangelicals like Santorum are to hold national office.